Doctors in South Korea made a surprising discovery while examining a 65-year-old woman’s X-ray: “hundreds of tiny gold acupuncture needles left in her tissue.” The woman, suffering from osteoarthritis, had turned to acupuncture after painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs caused stomach issues.
Acupuncture involves inserting needles to “stimulate certain points on the body” for pain relief or other treatments. In this case, the gold needles were intentionally left in the knees for ongoing stimulation.
Experts warn this practice is risky. “Foreign objects left inside the body can lead to inflammation, abscesses and infection,” said Dr. Ali Guermazi of Boston University. He noted that needles can obscure X-rays, and “the patient can’t go into an MRI because needles left in the body may move, and damage an artery.”
Although acupuncture is widely used for arthritis in Asia, evidence of its effectiveness remains limited. In the U.S., surveys show “3.1 million adults and 150,000 children were treated with acupuncture” in 2007.
